Six white people arrested linked to 'revenge killing' for Eugene Terreblanche murder

Six white people have been arrested in a South African town amid claims that
they could be linked to the killing of a 15-year-old black child "in
revenge" for the murder of far-right leader Eugene Terreblanche.

Protesters outside the court in Ventersdorp, South Africa last monthPhoto: AP

The five white men and one white woman, aged between 19 and 49, were arrested on Friday in a raid on a house east of Johannesburg. During a search, police found sixteen guns and 15 swords, along with ammunition, camouflage outfits and a swastika badge.

Detectives believe that at least one of the weapons could be linked to the murder of Sibusiso Titimani, who was beaten and stabbed to death in open land near his shanty town home two weeks ago. They are also investigating whether there is a racial element to a series of other recent attacks and murders in the area, known as Primrose East.

Sibusiso's mother Thandiwe was in her shack 500 metres away when her son's 18-year-old friend Thato arrived at her door shouting: "Mama! Sibusiso is being beaten up by the boers." He described the three men who had attacked them as wearing balaclavas and military uniforms.

"His head was on top of a rock, he was still alive. I pulled him to sit up straight. He couldn't. He would open his eyes and then close them." The boy was rushed into emergency surgery in a Johannesburg hospital but died just before midnight.

Mrs Titimani said that she knew of others who had been attacked in the same field. "From what I hear, it is by white men who say they are taking revenge for Eugene Terreblanche," she added.

Terreblanche led the Afrikaner Resistance Movement campaigning for a separate white homeland after democracy in 1994. He was murdered by a black worker on his remote farm in April 2010 in a dispute over pay.

Captain Pinky Tsyinyane, a police spokesman, said the six suspects would be put through an identification parade to determine if they were involved in any of the assaults or murders, including Sibusiso's.

The six have been charged with the possession of unlicensed firearms and are expected to appear before magistrates this week.